WACO, Texas • Mini-Mizzou is the nation's 303rd-tallest team, according to kenpom.com, its players standing an average of less than 6 feet 4.

"We understand we're vertically challenged," MU coach Frank Haith said, smiling.

That figured to be all the more exposed and perhaps exploited on Saturday at No. 3 Baylor, whose roster dwarfs the fifth-ranked Tigers and features five players taller than MU's lone starting big man, 6-8 Ricardo Ratliffe.

But in its rousing first win over a top 10 team in a true road game since 1994, Mizzou muzzled Baylor 89-88 by once again leveraging quickness and smarts against size to improve to 18-1 overall and 5-1 in Big 12 play.

With Baylor (17-2, 4-2) losing a second consecutive game, No. 1 Syracuse losing at Notre Dame and No. 4 Duke falling to Florida State Saturday, MU figures to move up to No. 3 or possibly No. 2 when The Associated Press poll is released Monday.

In front of a sellout crowd of 10,617 at the Ferrell Center, MU gritted out the win despite making no field goals in the last 3 minutes 6 seconds and committing a season-high 18 turnovers.

Ricardo Ratliffe scored a career-high 27 points, and Phil Pressey had 18 points, seven assists, five rebounds and a career-high six steals for the Tigers — who made 23 of 34 from inside the arc (67.6 percent).

MU sealed it with 10 of 12 free throws in the last minute but seized it by outrebounding the Bears (32-26), matching their blocked shots (five each), nearly equaling their points in the paint (52-46) and outscoring them 18-11 in second-chance opportunities.

"There's height, and then there's speed; everything has a reciprocal effect," said 6-6 senior guard Kim English, who scored eight of his 10 points in the second half and often drew 6-11 Perry Jones III — whose eight points were six below his average. "I mean, I may have to guard bigger guys, but those bigger guys have to guard me."

He added, "For every bush fire, there's rain. Everything evens out in basketball."

But some things make all the difference.

"I heard a lot of issues or questions about size, or how can you do this or how can you do that?" said senior guard Marcus Denmon, who made five of six free throws in the last minute and had 15 points. "And instead of the can'ts, we focused on the things that we can do."

And that's be "very technique-oriented," Haith said.

And mentally tough, part of ongoing lessons from being "taken out to the woodshed" in a 75-59 loss at Kansas State.

The lessons? Stay poised and together. Absorb adversity and go to the next play.

And compete. Really compete.

"It's about how much you want it," Denmon said. "We've got a group of guys that I feel are hungry and want it more than other teams that we play."

That seemed particularly tangible in Ratliffe's ferocious play.

While Baylor's Quincy Miller outscored him with 29 points, Ratliffe had 15 in the first half to help stake MU to a 39-35 lead.

MU outrebounded Baylor 21-11 in the half, with nearly as many offensive boards (10) as the Bears had overall.

Ratliffe had five of those offensive rebounds as MU, preposterously, had a 14-0 advantage in second-chance points in the first half against hulking Baylor.

"He was on his game. He was on his game on the defensive end, too," Haith said.

Ratliffe, who entered the game leading the nation in field-goal shooting at 77.1 percent, actually ticked his percentage up a notch by making 11 of 14 (78.5 percent) and was unmussed by the thicket of long bodies and arms he was navigating.

"I don't really feel I have to change for anybody," said Ratliffe, who also had eight rebounds but an unsightly six turnovers.

Baylor emphasized the inside game early in the second half and tied it 54-54 on a 3-pointer by Anthony Jones that bounced high off the rim and fell.

But a Matt Pressey 3 restored the MU lead, and the Tigers stretched it to 76-64 when English hit a 3 with 5:07 left.

Baylor nibbled and nibbled and nibbled back, though, cutting it to 85-82 on a three-point play by Miller with 26.6 seconds left.

But Phil Pressey hit one of two free throws, and the Tigers made it 88-82 with 12 seconds left after Baylor's Brady Heslip air-balled a 3-point attempt trying to draw a foul and Denmon made two free throws.

Baylor's Pierre Jackson, though, wouldn't let it go, making a 3 with five seconds left to keep alive a flickering hope on a day when he had 20 points and 15 assists.

A second later, though, Denmon hit one of two from the line to make Heslip's last-second 3 harmless.

"I pride myself on making free throws, and (that was) the time where you need to make free throws the most," he said.

Just another way MU, fifth in the nation in free-throw shooting, overcompensates for being vertically challenged.

"We understand," Denmon said, "what it takes to win games."